A Word to the Wise

Hello everyone and welcome back. Just a couple of reminders for current Berkeley students. Registration is still ongoing so if you haven't registered, get moving because classes are filling up. Next Wednesday from 11am to 12pm Bergen County campus is having a bake sale so if you love baked goods head out to Bergen County Student Center. In the Midtown campus HOLA is having Hispanic Heritage Month planning meeting next Tuesday and Thursday 3-5pm in the Student Center. For more announcements check Blackboard or your Berkeley email.

On to some wisdom that i wish to impart on High School students that are either entering college this year or going to be entering soon. College is going to provide a lot of new experiences. Some of those experiences will be great such as clubs, frats and sororities. Others will be challenges such as professors, course work and exams. The key to any good college experience is the ability to balance both of those extremes. I will impart what I know but most of it will have to be learned on your own.

One of the biggest issues i have seen in my collegiate life is the frustrations students can have with professors. Frustrations can range from the inability to understand what they are saying due to an accent or the way they actually go about teaching the material. I have had the luck of the draw to have either great or OK professors. Professors will definitely have different methodologies when it comes to the subject matter that they are teaching. A lot of stereotyping of professors occur because a lot students think older professors are either boring or have built tenure so doesn't really care. That maybe the case in some instances but more than not it isn't. People confuse the professors methodology for the inability to teach effectively. Many professors that are older have developed their system of years and countless number of student bodies and figures that this works best. It also doesn't help them that every year or so a new edition of the book comes out and they get little time to decipher the new book into an effect teaching strategy. It then becomes the onus of the student to figure it out as well.

I see this occur a lot with night students as they feel they have some right for the teach to spoon feed them the information and just give them exams. That is a common misconception that will doom any night student to education ruin. No professor day or night class will ever spoon feed you anything. It is a 50/50 battle and sometimes the student has to work a little harder than usual to get the info they need. I currently see this occur in my psychology class. The professor is a great lecturer but not totally great at drawing and putting notation on the board. Now freshmen you will learn there are two types of professors, ones that can lecture and write notes on the board well and those that can only lecture. This professor is the later in my opinion which doesn't sit well with a couple of students. I have students complaining that they dread the class because they don't understand what is going on. Yet these are the same students that talk through out class and not focus. This is week 8 and you should know by now the professor is going to talk more than write so you should pay attention. Not only do they not pay attention but when students ask them nicely to be quiet an attitude and anger is what that student gets in return. In my opinion you don't like the class, drop it. Freshmen you will know with in 2 classes how the professor is going to run things, if you don't like it drop the course and take it next semester, or swap.

The biggest question that arises and I here a lot during the complaining is that it is a requirement for their major. So what! There is nothing in the rule book that says you must take it this semester. Most major requirements are given often because it is a required course, so don't worry. If you decide to grind it out, then grind it out. Don't complain every class because that is not going to get you anywhere and it is annoying for the students that actually want to be there. I am a student that doesn't need to study much and doesn't really look at notes so being in a class without much talking is key for me to hear the professor. Unfortunately this semester I am stuck in two class, psych being one of them where that is not the case. Everyone has their trials, things to do and places to be but once you made the decision to return or go to college that meant you had the time and ability to do it. Freshmen as you embark on your own collegiate experiences remember what i wrote here today. It will definitely save you a lot of angst and frustration that does nothing but waste time and energy. Everyone has the ability to succeed and if you have to do a little more work to counteract what you believe is a shortcoming of the professors, then so be it. He/she is human like all of us and they will definitely make some mistakes.

Anyway on a lighter note it is time for the Rebecca and Jose corner. Rebecca continues to grow and mature as fast a one year old can. She loves to give hugs and kisses especially to her brother. Jose is still battling some Acid Reflux issues but hopefully some new strategies that me and my wife have come up with will work. So far after a day and a half his spit up has dropped significantly and he is sleeping better. Anyway that is all for now, catch you guys later.